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Rising from the Bottom

a book by Ted Cox

(our site's book review)

In general, this tax-and-spend idealistic liberal, who does most of his thinking in terms of Alcoholics Anonymous (applying their religiously-based 12-Step ideas to social problems in general), has obsolete ideas about the role government needs to take in social problem solving. And employing religion as a social cure is a nonstarter. Individuals should deal with religion in their own private ways, choosing churches or no churches as they see fit. We don’t need an American “program” (read that: social engineering) where the separation between church and state is jeopardized and we “submit to God’s authority” as a nation. This is naďve. Authoritarianism is one of our country's—and our world's—worst problems. It's anything but a solution to anything. See Good News and Bad News.

However, Cox has some good ideas about the best way for the society to transform: “It has always been a small number of people who inspired mass movements. Most of us incline to follow leadership. Ideas originate with individuals—one person, perhaps just a few persons. Then they inspire others . . .” We see the MC movement in such terms.

Cox reminds us of Margaret Mead’s famous line: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Cox advocates: “Instead of using band-aid reforms for the quick fix, we focus on the longer range goal of a new world.” He then advocates win-win, ecological and human cooperation and what Einstein advised: that we all find a new way of thinking. Quote: “The release of atom power has chan­ged everything except our way of thinking…the solu­tion to this pro­blem lies in the heart of man­kind. If only I had known, I should have become a watch­ma­ker.” — Albert Einstein

'The release of atom power has chan­ged everything except our way of thinking…the solu­tion to this pro­blem lies in the heart of man­kind'—Albert Einstein